WATERTOWN, New York, October 30, 2009 - NARAL Pro-Choice New York has now thrown itself into the three-way battle going on for the New York 23rd with a heavy endorsement for the embattled Republican pro-abortion candidate Dede Scozzafava.

NARAL, sensing that Scozzafava's political fortunes are in serious trouble, has decided to pour in their resources to prop up her failing bid to fill the seat vacated by Rep. John M. McHugh, who resigned in September to become Secretary of the Army.

Elizabeth Benjamin of the New York Daily reports that the abortion-advocacy group blanketed 10,000 mailboxes in New York's 23rd on Thursday and Friday to get out the vote for Scozzafava. The mass-mailing costs something to the tune of $10,000-15,000 and tells readers that Scozzafava is a "no brainer choice" because the GOP Assemblywoman has "a 100% pro-choice record and a clear record of commitment to reproductive and women's health care issues."

Some pro-abortion advocates, however, are appalled that NARAL has decided to get involved now, arguing that the move essentially amounts to friendly-fire on a candidate who is already hemorrhaging GOP voters over her very liberal stances.

Markos Moulitsas of the left-wing blog Daily Kos says that NARAL is "working for a right wing victory" and that if the pro-abortion organization does not want the pro-life Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman to win, their public effort "is beyond stupid."

I see Kos's point. NARAL's endorsement is a double whammy- it takes liberal votes away from the Dem and conservative votes away from the Republican. In other words, it means that two candidates are going to be sharing Dem votes, while the conservative candidate gets unfettered access to the Republican. Given that the race right now is very close, with the Democrat down, that could be a deciding factor.

naral used to support a republican congresswoman who finally got voted out in '06. she had been credited for having been instramental in blocking healthcare reforms. why would naral support a woman like this? talk about a betrayal of progressive principals. what's the point of protecting abortion rights when women are dying of cancer because insurance revoked their coverage?

tracked down the name of the republican congresswoman naral had supported. from 2006, discussing the conn race:

AMY GOODMAN: Bill Curry, if Lieberman were to win, while he says he will caucus with the Democrats, he doesn’t help the balance of power for Democrats in taking the Senate, right?

BILL CURRY: No, it’s a Democratic seat. One of the things that’s happened to Lamont, in fairness, we have three very competitive House races in this state. In the Second District, my lifelong friend, a great progressive, Joe Courtney is in a dead heat with former CIA operative, Rob Simmons. Diane Farrell challenging Chris Shays in Fairfield County, and Christopher Murphy challenging Nancy Johnson, the architect of our modern healthcare system, in the Fifth Congressional District, these are exciting races. They’re all in a dead heat. And frankly—

AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, Nancy Johnson is the architect of the modern healthcare system?

BILL CURRY: Well, in a very real way, Nancy Johnson has been the single most influential member of her party in Washington on healthcare for the quarter century that she sat in Congress. She chairs the Subcommittee on Healthcare at Ways and Means. And it would actually—if you were to simply say, “Who is the living American who has most given us this debacle of a health system?” it’s hard to imagine who, other than Nancy Johnson, you would suggest for that honor. Again, it’s like the experience argument, you know: how do you feel that’s working?

Nancy was also a key architect of the Gingrich revolution, an important lieutenant in his fight to take over power, and then the chair of the Ethics Committee, who began the process of the Ethics Committee no longer doing its job at all, staving off investigations past an election, and then finally leaving the position herself, but creating a tendency there that’s lasted a long time, to turn a blind eye to obvious misdeeds.